Busting Jewelry Myths: “Diamonds Aren’t Rare”

A quick internet search will show you rants about how “diamonds aren’t rare.”

"It’s all a conspiracy."

"DeBeers controls the world’s diamond supply through a predatory international monopoly..."

All of this is unfounded in the modern diamond economy.

For 4 reasons:

First...Diamonds form 100 miles beneath the earth's surface, through a process of tremendous pressure and extreme heat, over billions of years.The stones are later pushed toward the surface of the earth through volcanic activity.

And of all the diamonds that are pushed toward the surface of the earth, less than 20% of the diamonds mined worldwide are gem quality. (The other 80% are used for industrial purposes; saws, drills, etc.)

And, of the 20% that are gem quality stones that go on to be polished and sold to the public...

Only 1 in 1,000 polished diamonds will weigh more than one carat.

0.1% of gem quality diamonds are 1 carat or larger.

So gem quality diamonds in general are rare and the earth isn't making any more on-demand.

And large (1 ct+), natural, gem-quality diamonds are very rare, by anyone's standards.

Second...The DeBeers monopoly ended over a decade ago when multiple international suppliers refused to distribute their diamonds through the DeBeers single-channel monopoly.

So, the argument that diamond scarcity is manufactured and controlled by one company was true at one time, but it's not true today, and it hasn’t been true for some time.

And diamond prices have stayed stable.

Prices didn’t drop dramatically when the market opened to other suppliers...